Iona Cleave
Nicolás Maduro held up the peace sign in new photographs of him posing inside a New York federal prison.
The ousted Venezuelan president, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been detained in the US for seven months after US forces captured them in a raid in Caracas in January.
In a post on his official X account, the autocratic former leader wrote that he and his wife “stand firm, with our hearts full of love” as they await trial on narco terrorism and drug-trafficking charges.
In the two pictures – dated June 25 – Maduro is seen grinning as he holds up his fingers in the “V” shape while wearing a grey prison-issued tracksuit.
The post said Maduro offered the pictures as a “small gift of hope and lift” to “all the noble people who love us”.
After quoting a passage from the bible, the post added: “God will provide. Venezuela will be reborn.”
They are the first known images of him inside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn. It is not clear who took the photographs or how they came to be posted on social media.
Maduro served as president of Venezuela for more than 10 years until the January 3 raid on Caracas, which resulted in Maduro being detained and brought to the US to face drugs and weapons charges.
He has denied all the charges and declared himself a “prisoner of war”.
In April, Washington allowed Venezuela to pay for the couple’s legal defence, something previously barred under US sanctions.
During Maduro’s 2013-26 presidency, he was accused of carrying out political persecution, including ordering arbitrary detentions, torture and extra-judicial killings. Both of his re-elections, in 2018 and 2024, were widely rejected as fraudulent.
Since Maduro’s capture, the Trump administration appointed Delcy Rodríguez, his former vice-president and close Maduro ally, to lead the country.
The US now effectively controls Venezuela’s oil revenues and reserves, with proceeds going into special accounts overseen by Washington.
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